Astra Zeneca: Redrawing the research blueprint

Astra Zeneca announced that it is ending R&D work at its research centre at Alderley Park in Cheshire in the north-west of England, reports Chemistry World. The move is part of a redrawing of the company’s global research blueprint, which will now be centred on the creation of three ‘strategic R&D centres’ for small molecules and biologics, to be based in Cambridge in the UK, Gaithersburg in Maryland, US, and Mölndal in Sweden.

Around 1,600 workers will move from Alderley Park to a new strategic R&D centre and global headquarters in Cambridge. The move will also affect Astra Zeneca’s global headquarters in Paddington, London, where around 350 people work in commercial and corporate functions. Overall, 700 jobs will be lost in the UK following the restructuring. The restructuring will cost around 1.4 billion dollars.
For the UK, the news comes as another blow to an already reeling pharmaceutical sector following the announcement in 2011 that Pfizer’s UK site in Sandwich was to close with the loss of more than 2,000 jobs. Astra Zeneca itself announced in 2007 that it was to shed 11 per cent of its workforce globally – 7,600 people – with a further 7,300 job cuts in 2012.

(04|2013) Source: Rsc